Fervent Wish
by Nikki-noodle-kins
Summary: Sarah's dreamed of the Goblin King for two years now and dreams of the same thing every night. But one night, something changes. Something that could change the lives of everyone...


AN: Hi all! It's been quite some time since I've actually written fanfiction since I went to live at school. I'm really sorry about the long wait. (Everyone's probably forgotten about me but that's ok. I'll live.) Anyway, I'm almost out of school for thesummer so maybe I can concentrate on this storylike a creative writingproject. I edited the first two chapters that I wroteandmashed them together for one bigchapter so enjoy the story!

Title: Fervent Wish

Author: Nikki-noodle

Date: 4/30/06 updated

Chapter: 1

Rated: PG13

Disclaimer: I don't own anything relating to the Labyrinth.

---

"Give me the child."

"Sarah, beware. I have been generous. I can be cruel."

I resisted the urge to laugh in his face. "Generous? What have you done that's generous?"

"Everything!" he shouted, not seeming to care who heard him. "Everything that you have wanted I have done! You asked for the child to be taken. I took him. You cowered before me. I was frightening, " he circled around me, trying to break my defenses, but I wouldn't let him. "I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside down … and I have done it all for you," he stepped in front of me, his shoulders drooping as if he were tired. "I am exhausted from living up to your expectations of me. Isn't that generous?"

I squared my shoulders against the voice inside of my head screaming at me and recited the dreaded words. "Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city. For my will is as strong as yours. And my—"

"Stop. Wait." Jareth cut me off and quickly created a crystal in his nimble fingers. "Look Sarah. Look what I'm offering you. Your dreams."

I gave him a good, hard stare, mostly pissed that he had interrupted me. I continued on just to spite him. "And my kingdom as great," My chin rose with my confidence as I glared into his mismatched eyes.

"I ask for so little," he began. "Just let me rule you and you can have everything you want."

'Why don't you just tell me that you love me you big oaf?' I wanted to shout at him. I mean, all the signs were there right? Everything so far was what I had dreamed of happening! The dreams and dancing were my idea of happily ever after! Isn't this when he confesses all his deep desires for me and fall to his knees at my feet? Why wasn't he falling at my feet? I caught myself at my errant thoughts. 'Wait, where did those come from?'

As I was thinking about everything I suddenly realized something horrible. I couldn't remember the last line.

"Kingdom as great?" I mumbled to myself, fumbling for the right words. "Damn! I can never remember that line!" I quickly glanced at the clock realizing I only had seconds left to save Toby.

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave," he replied holding out his crystal as far as he could.

Suddenly, the line came as clear as a bell in my head. "You have no—"

"Sarah, whatever happens, just know that I love you. That I've always loved you."

And suddenly, without even having to say the last words, the crystal shattered in his palm and the floor gave way to a black emptiness below.

"Jareth!" I screamed as I fell.  
It never even occurred to me that he had done as I had wanted. I had gotten my unspoken wish.

I sat up in bed, wheezing and clutching my chest. I breathed a sigh of relief as I finally understood that it was all just a dream. My fists were clenched together so tightly that I gasped when they came apart. That wasn't supposed to happen. I was suppose to say the words and then watch his face crumble. The beginning was all right. Just the 'I'll be your slave if you let me rule you' crap. Why was the ending so different this time? Why am I even thinking about this? Jareth is a monster. A cruel, horrible monster with no idea as to what he truly is.

Every single time that this dream had haunted me, it was always the same. For the past two years I had dreamt of that death scene. It haunted me every night. But recently, since my seventeenth birthday to be exact, was when the dreams started shifting… becoming disorientated.

I laid back onto the pillows and closed my eyes with a deep breath. I smiled as I rubbed my knuckles over the fur of the blankets.

Wait… fur blankets? Since when have I had fur blankets? Never. I quickly opened my eyes and sat up in the bed. The bed, now that I could see, was huge. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. No, it was bigger than huge. It was gargantuan. I let my hands as well as my eyes roam along the deep oak frame and headboard. This bed was fit for a king. Or maybe some really wealthy guy. But this was not my bed.

I looked around the rest of the room and saw to my surprise that the walls were a deep navy blue. Definitely a man's bedroom. But why was I even in here? Two doors, both the same in style and color to the bed, seemed to emerge out of nowhere.

I slid my legs out from under the warm covers and almost shrieked when I saw what I was wearing. A pure white gossamer night gown was adorned upon my body. No fancy ruffles or god awful lace, just pure white. What was I? A fairy tale princess now? Hardly, with my imperfect body and gangly legs. And I mean come on. Every princess has a nightgown with ruffles. The dress barely came down to past my knees and I tried tugging it down to no avail.

As I crossed the large looming room, a sense of déjà vu hit me. The way I was standing reminded me of the time when I was forced to pick one of those dratted doors in Jareth's labyrinth. The only difference was that there were no knockers on these doors, just regular handles. And of course I wasn't running for my life in his stupid maze. Not trusting my instincts to go for the right door (look where that had gotten me the last time!) I reached for the left door and slowly opened it.

As I opened it all the way, candles suddenly lit up and I realized that for all my worrying, I was in a closet! A closet of all things! Both sides were filled with garments, one side obviously male and the other obviously female. I pulled out a couple of dresses and gazed at the perfection inlaid in each dress. I looked at the other side of clothes and noticed all the man's outfits. He had just about the same amount of clothes as this girl! Whoever owned all these clothes, surely lived here, I thought to myself. And would probably be wondering why I was snooping around in their closet. Oh damn! Don't think the owners of this humble abode would take too kindly to me running around in my nightgown either. Was my luck just the pits or what?

But maybe… maybe I was just dreaming again. That had to be it! I was dreaming and this was just a side dream to that weird dream from earlier. I went back to looking around at the clothes and other items in this closet. Everything was perfect! And when I mean perfect, I mean really perfect!

"I was wondering where you went off to. You had me worried for a moment." Arms wrapped around my stomach and lips grazed my cheek in a loving caress. "Are you sure you should be out of bed?"

My whole body stiffened at the familiar voice and I almost screamed when those lips kissed my cheek and my ear. I whirled around in the embrace and looked up into the startled goblin king's mismatched eyes for the second time in less than twenty four hours.

He was touching me! He… he kissed me! Surely the warmth of his lips on my cheek and ear couldn't have been a dream! I was wide awake now and nothing could stop my mouth from dropping to the floor.

Suddenly, as if the sight of him was too much for my exhausted and nightmare ridden mind to handle, I fell into the arms of Morpheus and passed out into the surprised goblin king's arms.

---

I woke up to the door closing and groaned quietly. I opened my eyes when I felt the bed sink down with the goblin king's weight. And I knew it was him because if I was dreaming, this was one long shit of a dream. And the warmth of those lips was something that I could not ignore. I closed my eyes and groaned again, trying my hardest to scoot away from him.

"Sarah, sweetheart, open your eyes."

I turned my head and opened one eye to find worried eyes looking back at me. His shoulders slumped and he brought his hand up to caress my cheek. Wait... did he just call me sweetheart!

"You nearly scared a thousand years off my life." He leaned forward and pressed a loving kiss against my forehead. I squeaked in surprise and tried to wiggle away from him.

He gave me a puzzled look and sat up straight, "Sarah, what's wrong? Are you still sick?" He put his hand against my forehead in a clinical manner and I bristled with indignation.

"Get off me!" I screamed, not caring if I broke glass. "Where the hell am I?" I quickly shoved against his chest and surprisingly he let me. I did a quick tumble roll, like one of those ninja maneuvers done on tv, and completely failed. My nightgown ended up getting tangled in my legs somehow along with the sheets, and I fell like a lump of coal to the cold, stone floor.

That's when the tears started flowing. This just was not my day.

"It's just not fair! Why is everything so messed up!"

Jareth came running around the bed when I started yelling and fell to his knees on the floor alongside me. He picked me up effortlessly, sheets and all, and sat on the edge of the bed while I cried my eyes out. It didn't really matter at that moment that I was using my worst enemy as a tissue or that he was holding me on his lap with my head in the crook of his neck.

After what felt like an eternity of him making crooning noises and murmuring sweet nothings in my ear, I finally had calmed my tears down to almost inaudible hiccups. Even after I had stopped crying, he was still soothing me with his voice.

"You aren't supposed to be here," I said softly, almost as If I was talking to myself. "I'm supposed to be in my house with my Dad, Toby, and even Karen. What am I doing here?" That last question was asked of the Goblin King and with the look on his face, he looked at me like I was a poisonous snake.

"Sarah, I don't know what you're talking about… you've never mentioned anyone like that before."

He must have seen the shock on my face for his arms closed around me tightly, fearing I would flee.

"Oh none of that, my dear girl," he said pulling me even closer to him. "You know what happened the last time you ran away from me."

Oh yea, I knew perfectly well what he was talking about. "Yea, you stupid ass. You set the goblins on me and Hoggle with the cleaners."

"The cleaners?" he looked puzzled. "Sarah, I was talking about six years ago when I was courting you. Don't you remember?"

Now it was my turn to look puzzled. I didn't know Jareth six years ago. I was barely a teenager six years ago.

"Jareth I don't know what scheme you're planning, but it won't work on me! Please, just let me go home!" I could beg, I could plead. I mean, crying worked on him didn't it? Maybe if I shed a couple big fat ones, he'd give up this stupid pretense and let me go home!

Two big fat tears rolled down my cheeks as I clutched Jareth's coat. "I'll do anything you want if you just let me go home. Please!" Ok, guess I didn't have to fake those tears cause new ones were popping out at an accelerated rate and suddenly, it felt like I couldn't breath anymore. I gasped and cried at the same time, realizing from far away that I was hyperventilating. "I can't … breathe!" I choked out.

"Shhhhh," he crooned to me, and began rubbing small circles on my back.

"I think I need to call my healer. I will be back within moments my sweet."

He quickly laid me down on the bed, in the rumpled sheets and left the room with purposeful strides. I sat up shoving down the sheets wrapped around me and tried to get up. By the time that I had the sheets around my feet, Jareth was walking through the door once more with a small balding man waddling behind him.

"There is something extremely wrong with her," Jareth started out sitting next to me on the bed. "I'm not sure what is going on but she is disorientated and very confused."

"Hey! I'm still here in this room! It would be a little nice if I was talked to instead of talked about!"

The healer, whose name I had not discovered as of yet, gave me a startled glance. Jareth turned to look at me and gave me a weird look.

"Sarah, darling, do you know who I am?"

I stared at Jareth returning his odd look. "Of course I know who you are. You're the goblin king."

Jareth and the healer exchanged worried looks.

"Yes, something is definitely wrong," the healer confirmed.

---

After being asked various questions relating to my relationship with Jareth, I quickly came to the conclusion that something was horribly wrong. Or worse. Although anything worse than horribly wrong worried me to no end.

Jareth and the healer had left momentarily to "discuss" what was wrong with me. Why they couldn't talk about it in front of me I had no idea. But I didn't have to think on that subject long for Jareth and Odel soon came back in. (I heard Jareth mutter a curse outside the door and figured Odel was the healers name even though the name didn't ring any bells whatsoever in my brain)

"Sarah, I just have a couple more questions for you. Please tell me in as much detail as you remember." I nodded my understanding and looked at Jareth warily as he came to stand next to the bedpost on my right side.

"Who are these people you seemed to mention earlier? People by the names of Toby and Karen?"

I let out a deep breath. This was easy. "Well, Toby is my younger brother, and Karen is my stepmother. She remarried my father when I was eight years old... I can't really remember a time when she wasn't there. And I mean, Toby was born soon after she married my father so they've really always been there."

He wrote some notes in a book that he seemed to carry. "Tell me what you remember of Jareth?"

"Well, I remember that I was babysitting my brother Toby and he just wouldn't stop crying. I used to be really into dramas and plays and my current obsession was a play called the Labyrinth. The main character just constantly reminded me of myself and I guess I got too carried away when I started reading Toby's bedtime story. I got too into the story and soon I said the words!" Tears started pouring down my cheeks. I had forgotten how painful this memory actually was.

"'I wish the goblins would come and take you away, right now!'" I mocked not even trying to conceal my tears.

"I said those damning words and Jareth came into my life like he was born to the part, which I guess in a way he was. He came and took my brother and forced me to make a choice. A choice that had nearly killed me. But I prevailed in the end. I said the words to take back the child and I won!"

I was outright sobbing now as Jareth sat next to me and gathered me into his arms slowly rocking back and forth. Strangely, I didn't even seem to notice or mind for that matter. Odel was leaning towards me as if he was trying to make out my words and I repeated quietly, "I won."

After composing myself, I whirled to face Jareth. "I thought I had killed you! Why didn't you ever tell me! Even if you didn't feel anything for me at all, I figured you would at least try to enact your revenge against me. Why did you wait til now to kidnap me?"

Jareth opened his mouth and closed it like a fish out of water. It would have been a whole lot more amusing if I wasn't stuck in this situation.

Odel patted my shoulder in a comforting gesture and sat on the other side of me.

"Sarah, I'm not sure if there is any easy way to break this to you, but Jareth is not the monster you think he is. Rather the opposite actually."

I looked up at Odel and then back at Jareth who was still staring at me.

"Sarah, Jareth isn't a king or even a prince for that matter. He's just a simple nobleman with a family and a beautiful estate."

"So you aren't the royal physician? Then what are you even doing here?" I asked with a strange sense of surprise etched on my face.

"Actually Sarah, you were very ill only a few days ago. You've been ill for about three weeks now. You've had hallucinations and deliriums. It was all very frightening. I am merely here for a routine checkup. You've only been awake for a day now and I thought it best to give you a day's rest." He paused but continued quickly. "But this is very odd. You see, I've never dealt with a patient who's lost her memory from a mere fever."

Odel looked Sarah up and down and nodded empathically. "Very odd indeed."

AN: I have updated the story just a little. I condensed the first two chapters into one big chapter. I have also finally got a word processing program that finally has a spell and grammar check so my work isn't that horrifying to read anymore.

I am still in need of someone to edit chapters for me and let me know what they think of my work (and possibly help me out with odd phrases and the like).

Please email me at if you would be interested to help me whatsoever (and I love all comments so don't be shy).

I would also appreciate any emails concerning what you think is going to happen next. I mean, if I like the idea enough it might make it into the story somehow (and if you don't want to see something occur in this story as well, let me know and I'll try my hardest to make sure it stays clear away from this story.) Well, see you guys in the next chapter!

-nnks


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